13 March 2012

Many in the UK will have heard on the news today that yet another study from Harvard University [1] has linked the eating of red and processed meat with an increased risk of heart disease and cancer.

This study is largely nonsense and quite irrelevant to us in the UK. There are lots of similar accusations about red meat, which really only apply (perhaps) to processed meat. The two are always lumped together just as saturated fats and trans fats are, even though the former is healthy and latter is harmful.

But there is more to this. Think of all the peoples in the world - Maasai, Inuit, Samburu, Marsh Arabs, Naga, and many more - who, when they lived exclusively or largely on red meat, DIDN'T get any form of cancer or heart disease.[2-8] There is also no evidence that eating red meat increases cancer and heart disease risk in UK or in mainland Europe.[9]. (See also page 102 of T&T)

The right - healthy - way

You see, all this red-meat-cancer stuff is confined entirely to the US. And it is not difficult to see why this might be so. Firstly look at the way most cattle are farmed today in the US - in concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs), where the animals are not fed their proper diet of fibrous grasses and vetches, but starchy and omega-6 rich genetically modified soy and cereal grains. This ruins the health of the cattle so that they have to be dosed with antibiotics, it changes the fatty acid components of their body fat, and it reduces the amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). And CLA is a powerful anti-cancer agent, which Americans cut off and don't eat!

The wrong - unhealthy - way

And, as we all know, the US is so fat-phobic that even healthy animal fats are trimmed off and replaced with starchy and sugary carbs - which DO increase the risk of both diseases.

None of those things applies in the UK (except the fat-phobia). Incidentally, there is no evidence I know of that the processed meats found throughout Europe - bacon, ham, sausage, salami, wurst, cabernossi, chorizo, cassoulet, etc, are harmful in any way either.

What this latest study really demonstrates (if it demonstrates anything at all) is that the red meat produced and processed in the US might be unhealthy, if consumed as part of a carb-rich diet. Which may be why the health of the US population is about the worst in the industrialised world.

Trick and Treat: how 'healthy eating is making us ill

About Me

Nutritional author, lecturer and journalist; doctorate in nutritional science; 2002 Sophie Coe Prize winner; currently: a director of the Foundation for Thymic Cancer Research; a founder member of the Fluoride Action Network; a founder member of THINCS –The International Network of Cholesterol Sceptics; and an honorary member of the board of the Weston A Price Foundation.
E-mail: barry@second-opinions.co.uk